The recent move by Korean firm Woo Yun Kang Jeong & Han to condense its name to Yulchon should be commended. The firm's name was previously more of a memory test than a moniker. Yulchon, which means 'legal village', may sound slightly awkward to Western ears, but at least you don't have to catch your breath after saying it.

Other firms that have found their names out of control through merger or simply history have also taken action. Compare the longwindedness of Manila-based Angara Abello Concepcion Regala & Cruz (15 of them there) with the neat, easily recalled and unmistakably legal ACCRALAW, for example (unwanted associations with the Ghanaian capital aside).

Gunderson Dettmer Stough Villeneuve Franklin & Hachigian LLP, of the US, should take note, regardless of the pulling power, reputation and expertise of the six eponymous gentlemen. Who knows - maybe clients subconsciously link the succinctness of the firm name with the succinctness of the advice they can expect to receive, or the number of billable hours it will take to get it?

Forming a firm's name from the surnames of its founding partners is surely a legacy from the time when those founding partners formed a far larger proportion of and had a much greater influence over the firm as a whole. Back then, clients could probably expect to be personally served by a name partner. Now, a client would probably turn white in the face if served by Mr White, or Mr Case in any case.

The problem is that a string of names, commas and ampersands still lends such a respectable, solid and established feel to a firm in the client's perception - or at least the firm's perception of the client's perception. This is so much the case that the younger firms in our part of the world, keen to appeal to Western sources of incoming FDI work and referrals from the punctuation-encumbered Western firms, have had to sign up to the conventional wisdom - regardless of the linguistic or onomastic environment in which they operate.

This has produced a situation of multi-layered confusion where many Asian firms have apt and meaningful names in their local language and something discordant, contrived and meaningless in English. Even the many multilingual and well-travelled international lawyers in Beijing get lost in all the Kims and Lees in leading Korean firms' names (and so hats off to the Seoul IP firm that took a step back and just called itself Kims and Lees). Their counterparts in Tokyo, recognising the Chinese characters used, wonder why, or if, our own jing du can really be the same as King & Wood. In Seoul, meanwhile, lawyers wonder why so many international firms in Tokyo have those guys Gaikokuho, Jimu and Kyodo as name partners.

Perhaps the established name format of Western law firms has outgrown its era.

To not shorten one's firm name in today's sound bite world is to tempt others to do so ad hoc. When this happens it can be insulting to a name partner - how does Mr Myer feel when he hears his firm so frequently referred to only as O'Melveny? This can also cause dangerous confusion. For example, London lawyers in China referring out of habit to Linklaters as 'Links', may find the listener is thinking of Charles Qin and the gang at Shanghai firm Llinks, especially given that firm's rise to top-end work. Meanwhile, the corporate communications team at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer has been fighting an uphill battle for years now to make the way the firm is referred to reflect its German merger of 2000 - but everyone still says "Freshfields".

To not shorten one's firm name also makes it difficult for the name to be included in a self-explanatory URL or e-mail address. It can also prove difficult for the media to quote one's lawyers or refer accurately to the firm.

Some major firms have already taken the plunge into succinctness. Skadden is now unhindered by that trail of, let's face it, rather grating companions, and Ashurst now sounds much more... crisp, if you will.

ALB thinks firms should have confidence that their work will create their brand image and thus feel free to get smart with names. Chinese firm ZhongLun has started playing with missing spaces and upper/lower case in that HongkongBank kind of way and are looking all the more modern for it; and Australian tech specialists Gilbert + Tobin are just about the only firm to have looked beyond the standard keyboard for a unique, precise feel.

These firms should be applauded, not just for their appreciation of euphony but also for their progressiveness.